*"Here was a complicated bit of Matter. Once it had possessed Life and Motion, but those had been taken away from it. And though only the Titans could restore Life to it, she could give it Motion again, once she had the juice."<br>

*"Here was a complicated bit of Matter. Once it had possessed Life and Motion, but those had been taken away from it. And though only the Titans could restore Life to it, she could give it Motion again, once she had the juice."<br>

:::''Wanda Firebaugh, on the body of a croaked scout, [[IPTSF Text 5]]''

:::''Wanda Firebaugh, on the body of a croaked scout, [[IPTSF Text 5]]''

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*"The three Elements were created equal. Are you a Titan, to say otherwise?"<br>

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:::''Wanda Firebaugh, [[IPTSF Text 15]]''

==Life==

==Life==

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*"Life magic, Wanda. Croakamancers don't use it."<br>

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:::''Olive Branch, disparaging a Croakamancer, [[IPTSF Text 15]]''

==Motion==

==Motion==

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*"This unit has Motion, and that is something a Hippiemancer would know nothing of."<br>

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:::''Wanda Firebaugh, disparaging a Florist, [[IPTSF Text 15]]''

==Matter==

==Matter==

Revision as of 03:50, 2 January 2013

Quotes. Citations. Everything.Status: Starting IPTSF.I would request that anyone else contributing to this limit it to quotes on how magic works for now, rather than things that just have the word magic in them (eg. "So... magic, right?")

General

"He told me that Casters are Commanders, and can lead stacks, but they almost never do. Casters are too rare and valuable to risk, and they give no leadership bonus to the stack anyway. Only Warlords have leadership. Makes sense. Except for certain exceptions. Like, say... the bonus those golems get if they're led by a Dirtamancer. Or the huge one to Uncroaked units being led by a Croakamancer(!)."

"Ahead and below, the target threw some Shockmancy bolts up at them. The defense was automatic. Not only were there no casters there to direct the stored spells, but there were apparently no commanders of any kind in the city."

"Wanda said she thought it was a whole mess of different magicks, what'd she say... Shockmancy, obviously. Rhyme-o-mancy because it rocked out. Carnymancy because it made big flashes and sometimes could make things disappear (he never could do it on purpose, though). And what else? Changemancy? He looked at the hammer closely. There might be a lot more he could do with it besides taming dwagons, which was... Date-o-mancy, he guessed?"

Elements

"Here was a complicated bit of Matter. Once it had possessed Life and Motion, but those had been taken away from it. And though only the Titans could restore Life to it, she could give it Motion again, once she had the juice."

Motion

Matter

Classes

Hocus Pocus

Findamancy

Predictamancy

"Marie, of course, had told her many times that she had Predicted the fall of her side, the kingdom where she and Wanda had served. But when it came to explaining how the fall had happened, how she and Wanda both had escaped destruction in different ways, she wouldn't budge.

'It all got cloudy,' was all she would really say. 'It happens. I saw it would come and I wonned my Rulah. But when it came it all got cloudy, I don't know.' "

"Wanda, the reason that Predictamancers do not say everything we know is not because it would change the future, but because it usually will make it longer and more painful to reach those future outcomes. The less you know about what is to come, about your Fate, then the easier it will be for you to get there, the less... you and others will have to suffer, to lose."

"The dice describe the world. They don’t determine it. A Mathamancer can tell you how many dice will be rolled, how many points’ll be lost when you’re wounded. He’ll tell you what’ll probably happen, and possibly happen, and what can’t happen."

"That level 6 Jitterati warlord, Duncan Scone, was now her best fighter. Vanna had done some good work to turn him, but the dungeon didn't much interest Jillian. Vanna didn't really know how to play right."

Dollamancy

"Well, it's Dollamancy, Lord," said Maggie, looking up at him. [...] "This particular 'outfit'... I would call it 'raiment'... came from the Magic Kingdom. The helm was made by one of our new Twolls.

"Yeah, how do Twolls do that? Bogroll made my armor, and he put the sword together. This new guy Zhopa just made me a picnic basket." [...]

"Twolls have the 'fabrication' special, which is a form of natural Dollamancy. Units with that ability can make small nonmagical items, usually armor and equipment. I understand that the next Twoll we pop will be assigned to the stables as a smith and saddlemaker."

Parson nodded. "But the rest of the clothes were from an actual Dollamancer?"

"What about these symbols?" Parson slapped his chest plate. "My Hamstard crest and Wanda's skull emblem, and the Stanley posters. That's all Dollamancy, too?""The emblems are called 'livery,' Lord. And yes, that is a common form of natural Dollamancy. New units pop bearing the livery their Ruler desires. Twolls can fabricate items which bear their master's livery. And when a caster creates another unit, as in golem-making or uncroaking, the caster sets the livery and other features of the unit's appearance."

"Ace stroked his chin, contemplating the King's potential as a combatant. "Start with your weapon, I guess. May I?"Slately put the Royal Scepter of Jetstone in the hands of a non-Royal caster without a moment's hesitation. It was a mark of his seriousness of purpose. But he did cringe as Ace began to take it apart."

"Upon claiming it, she’d imposed Goodminton’s livery on it by natural Dollamancy, reluctantly changing the black to slate blue. But on a whim, she kept just one of the pink flowers, offset in a patch of white."

"Conjure as in make it?" Parson said with his mouth full. "Create it? Or summon it from somewhere?"

Sizemore leaned forward excitedly, rocking a little as he spoke. "That's a great question, Warlord. There's a big debate about that, getting right down to the level of 'what is magic?' and 'what is stuff?' Some Casters think they're the same thing, and that Stuffamancy proves it. But even the Stuffamancers don't agree about that."

"Dirtamancy was among the most rare and useful disciplines [in the Magic Kingdom]. Everyone needed a wall built, a garden tilled, a well dug, a foundation excavated. There were no city sites; construction was a manual industry."

"Without word or ceremony they lifted, and Jillian willed the city razed. With a great swirl of sparkling natural Dirtamancy, and a tinny crashing sound, Progrock turned to dust and rubble below them."

"Touching the spade to the grass of Portal Park put Sizemore directly in touch with Erfworld. He sensed the physical world in deep, primal ways which he found difficult to convey to other casters. Even Changemancers and Dittomancers would stare at him blankly when he described it, though they too practiced forms of Stuffamancy."

"He could feel the ground feeling him, pulling him down, pushing up on the soles of his feet as he lifted each leg to walk. In the soil below, rocks sat immersed in the cold mud. Their whole surface touched it, in all dimensions at once. Sizemore could feel this contact as if the pebbles were his own toes and fingers"

"Sizemore's mind slid away, down below his feet, to his other self. The strata, the stresses, the peace of land at rest, he understood them that way: as if they were parts of his own body. The ground could be comfortable and sedate, like a tired person feels when lying on onsic a soft mattress. Or it could be awkward, unsustainable, like a man trying to lean on a jagged stump, or sleep upside down on a stone staircase. The land in the Magic Kingdom was deeply, permanently at rest."

"This body analogy described something he had always intuited about the land. But only since his link with the Lady Firebaugh did he think of it consciously. His entire mental frame for visualizing his discipline had been reworked on that day. A hundred turns later, he was still reconsidering the fundamentals of his craft. [...] Between the volcano link-up and his three recent levels (two from traps and combat, one from all of the city rebuilding), Sizemore was now a greater Dirtamancer than he ever imagined he could become. He had not actually crossed the threshold to Master class, but that could happen any time a caster gained powerful new insight into his discipline or major class. The body analogy wasn't quite enough to push him past that mark; he was still missing something. But for the first time in his life, he felt pretty sure that he would get there."

Eyemancy

"The Eyemancers may be our single most valuable asset, above even the Arkenhammer. Ordering them linked was... the shrewdest thing I've ever known Stanley to do. They created the Eyebooks. They give us unmatched communications and intelliegence. When Stanley sees you have tampered with their functioning..."

Lookamancy

"Well, yes! I mean for a unit that is... that is moving, time passes normally, but not relative to units in other hexes. A Lookamancer tracking the movement of that unit may see it move much faster in their time. The time in their hex."

*sigh* It's a trick that only Thinkamancers can perform. A caster's will is subsumed into a... kind of psychological alloy with the Thinkamancer. The joint mind they form can cast spells no single caster can even comprehend.

The downside being that the casters lose their will...

Their sanity... their individuality... It's a risky and fragile spell, especially with three. Four can't even be done. Talking to them as individuals can break that spell, Parson. That may croak the casters. Or leave them useless. Or, have no effect."

"But when such a spell breaks, there is a kind of backlash. A cord which snaps. A good Thinkamancer can protect herself from damage. Had I been the caster, the object of the spell would have borne the brunt of it. This would likely have croaked the unit or left it incapacitated."

"Incredibly useful, incredibly scary magic. We got into spells, communications, suggestions... and then she mentions "Natural Thinkamancy." Innate magic. Like how some units fly and some dig... that's "Natural Magic." When scouting units send back intel, that's Natural Thinkamancy. But apparently so is following the Tool's orders. All units are subject to Natural Thinkamancies: Obedience, Loyalty, Duty, and others."

"There is a feeling. You may no longer notice it. But think of the first spell you ever cast. When you cast within your disclipline, there is a sense of warmth, comfort, familiarity. I want you to relax, and recall that feeling. Find the feel of your discipline, and step inside it. Lose yourself to it. Become your function."

"[The veil] worked because Bogroll already resembled you in most important aspects. Thinkamancy works similarly, on the mind to which it is applied. The changes it makes are remarkably small and subtle. It cannot turn a dullard into a genius, or a mouse into a maniac.

Or a hamster into a pit bull... Right, so if I thought of this. If I did this...

Then some very great part of you wanted to. The spell only nudged it forward."

"It's utterly fascinating, casting from a link. I just... understand the spell so clearly." According to Maggie, a two-caster linkup was a less risky and drastic thing than three, especially when done voluntarily. In it, the Thinkamancer's function was something like "cognitive copilot," managing the other caster's mental functions, focusing his attention and boosting his energy to achieve better results than the caster could alone. And it had worked. Their side got a better capital out of it than if Sizemore had upgraded the city by himself. The link was easily broken afterward, and neither of them seemed to suffer any harm."

"Speaking or shouting the command will work, Lord," said Maggie, lurching a bit as she rounded the remains of the picnic and walked up beside him. Though he was not completely steady himself, he offered his right elbow and she grabbed it gratefully. "Not be- because they understand Language, but because it hhhelps you frame the intent in your mind. You see. Experienced-" she swallowed hard, or possibly hiccupped. "Excuse me. Experienced commanders can command stacks with few or no words. When you understand your command, the unit will. Yet another fo-horm of natural Thinkamancy, Lord."

"What did the Arkendish do? Many things, most of them connected to Thinkamancy. Charlie could handle an unlimited number of Thinkagrams, and extend some of his abilities to his personal Archons in the tower. Any commander in the world could get those Archons' attention by concentrating hard enough, for long enough. This could take hours or even days, but Charlescomm would establish contact eventually. This allowed him to hire out to any side or barbarian in the world, and probably provided him more revenue than mercenary work. He was the telecom giant of Erfworld. This was the main thing he used the Arkendish for, but guessing its other powers was a favorite topic for the Archons."

"Among these were over eight thousand speaking units, any one of whom could request Maggie's attention via intense concentration. Similarly, she could reach out to these units herself, to relay orders or request status."

"Some (mercifully subconscious) part of Maggie's mind was always sorting and prioritizing the incoming and outgoing messages, making little decisions which added up to bigger ones. That was at the quietest of times. Before and during a major battle, it was more than she could fully process, more than she had the juice for. However structured and competent her mind might be, she was still only an Adept class Thinkamancer. Even a Mastermind would be taxed under these conditions."

"Little lanterns in Maggie's mind kept blowing out, in ones, twos and threes. The dwagon units, being harvested. And some of the riders, impacting the ground and ceasing to exist (at least, as Gobwin Knob units she had to manage)."

"Everyone else imagined Thinkamancy as a set of discrete capabilities: "relay a command" or "plant a suggestion" or "send a two-way visual/audible Thinkagram." They were meant to think of it that way. So long as that was the perception of the discipline, then its fundamental powers could stay largely unknown, untapped, and uncalled-upon."

"For example, a Thinkagram was not one type of spell. There was a spectrum, from which a Thinkamancer would choose one or more bands to communicate within. To someone without a sensitivity to this spectrum, it would be impossible to describe the advantages and capabilities of each, but many of those capabilities went entirely unused, except by Thinkamancers themselves. A warlord would only call for one of a short list of communiques: speech, orders, pictures and sounds. But he would not, for example, ask to communicate and compare his own intuition with that of an allied commander in the field. "

"Thinkamancers understood intuition to be a form of natural Predictamancy, in which a unit can dimly perceive its Fate on a subconscious level. To a Thinkamancer, intuition was as communicable as speech or emotion or the underlying intentions of orders. It could be sent and received, combined and multiplied, and manipulated."

"There were many other such hidden mechanics. There were mental senses which could not even be described to a non-Thinkamancer. The most important of these was the ability to sense Grandiocosmic Strings, the conduits of all magic power in Erfworld."

"Only Thinkamancers even knew they existed. A Thinkamancer could feel out the G-Strings of the world, and vibrate upon them by plucking. That was how a Thinkagram was sent, and so much else. Each unit had its own individual G-String, which had many uses."

"This was what Maggie had been doing for several minutes. Putting little notches in her G-String. It was a coded message, passive, and costing no juice. Any Thinkamancer who plucked her would find this note in her G-String. "

"He found himself staring up at the springmount, wondering if he should get up and tune it again. This one was modeled on a gwiffon, made of Thinkamancy-polarized Stuff and imprinted with Signamancy in bright yellow. It was centered on a single strong coil of steel anchored deeply into the ground. The mount shape was neither fanciful nor accidental. One used this instrument as a surrogate mount, climbing upon it and building up a physical oscillation of the proper frequency to detect and study the Thinkamancy of orders. The intent of a commander in issuing an order to a non-speaking unit, or of a Ruler in issuing an order to a remote field unit, was one of the most interesting forms of natural Thinkamancy, Isaac felt."

"G-strings vibrated on different frequencies, and would cancel or amplify each other across predictable distances. Before Isaac had built these devices, a Thinkamancer had to walk around until his head was in a place of amplification, then hold still."

"But staying within one node deprived the observer of important perspective, much in the way that closing one eye caused a loss of depth perception, or covering an ear made it hard to tell the direction of a sound. It had already been known that two linked Thinkamancers standing in different nodes could detect and send far better than any one caster. Isaac had figured out that one caster switching rapidly between nodes had a similar effect."

"At the top and bottom of the smooth inclined plane were nodes of intuition. One did not get more than a quick glimpse between the two, but that usually would suffice. If not, one could always climb the ladder again. This apparatus had a personal effect on the operator, giving him a glance at his own Fate and perhaps a vague insight or focus or warning."

"A tickle upon his brain, then Bunny, Transylvito's spooky Thinkamancer, "Your Royal Highness King Slately of Jetstone, His Royal Highness Don King of Transylvito." The words were only in his mind; she never spoke aloud.Don's image floated before him, seated as Slately was."

"Rulers have a natural Thinkamancy which allows them to relay orders to their field units, even without a Thinkamancer. He had an[sic] feel for what was going on with his forces, even sitting there in a chair in his capital's garrison's larder."

"In the empty side room, he sat holding his crown in his lap, pauper-like, while time ticked away and his units perished in the dungeons below. He saw their lights in his mind, being extinguished in twos and threes. No-one was leveling. It was clearly an awful rout."

"The numbers rose as a column, into the millions and billions and more, a silver thread stretching up and away from the peace below. This thread was being drawn up by the system of the world. Thinkamancers knew it as a "Grandiocosmic string."

"Above the fountain of sparks there appeared a huge, glowing apparition of Stanley the Tool's face, surrounded by bright rays of red and gold, just as he appeared on his new emblem. But these rays were like arrows pulsing outward, outward... go that way, scatter! Whether the archons took the direction literally or not, they knew the big giant head projection was beyond any of their natural Foolamancy abilities, and it certainly had not been part of the rehearsal."

"But [Charlie] had still gone to great risk to give her cover along the way, using veiled Archons to scout out safe routes. These were probably detectable only by a Foolamancer, another Archon, or a lucky/smart Warlord."

"Foolamancy is Eyemancy. By habit and trade, a Foolamancer must look. At all times, the Foolamancer must observe the nouns around him in finest detail and broadest stroke, in a way that other minds do not. Other minds take shortcuts. Other minds construct, telling themselves stories about what they see, rather than seeing. Foolamancy is therefore only a narrative. To tell a mind it sees something, the Foolamancer must both see the world as it is, and also as it is seen.Staring into the void of that discrepancy is what drives one mad, really."

"Hilary and her partner Avril took up a risky blind, directly over the heads of Prince Sammy's leadership stack. They kept the rising sun at their backs, relative to the warlords, and spent most of their juice to shine out their shadows. It was tricky, but worth it."

"Phoebe was made of brick. She was covered in soot. Black and red and gray, matching the colors of her raiment. All in a column, matching her general body size and opacity. She was a chimney on a rooftop, one of many dozens. It was a really good veil. Maybe her best ever. Gold star! The enemy’s minds would not have to reconcile very much with their eyes, and that was the name of the game."

"The figure in the tower was employing the apparatus they all had assumed was a weapon, but in fact it was a stringed instrument. She plucked and strummed upon it, and even from so far away, they could hear it perfectly. The music took an otherworldly, magical route to their ears."

"As she walked down another empty hall, Wanda casually held out her staff and tipped a ceramic vase of dried orange flowers from its marble pedestal. The crash was painful to her wine-tenderized head, yet enormously satisfying. Really, even the pain of it was satisfying. So Olive's spellsong did not prevent this form of engagement, either."

"With a perfunctory "Thanks," she upended the helmet and placed the plant's roots inside. She stepped a few feet away from the uncroaked and turned around to do something to the plant. Wanda could tell she was casting, but not what. [...] When Olive turned around, she held a perfectly healthy green plant in a steel planter."

Signamancy

"The Signamancers claimed that all Stuff was Foolamancy. Our bodies and all the things we see and touch were supposed to only be Signs: symbols of their true nature. Vinny didn't know about all that, but a person's appearance was definitely a Sign. It told you how they think about themselves. And how others see them."

"Signamancy was a terrible curse. The Titans knew his true nature. No unipegataur-riding warrior king was he, no towering leader and orator. Over the three-thousand or so turns he had ruled, he had only once seen battle, and that from a well-guarded turret. And so he had shrunk. Gone white and fat."

Date-a-mancy

"Date-a-mancy is the oddest branch of Hippiemancy, in that it follows the Numbers which underlie all action. Date-a-mancy tries to quantify the intangible, things like leadership and compatibility and morale and Loyalty and Duty and even love, by means of match-ups."

Naughtymancy

Shockmancy

"It's natural Shockmancy. When you fall, one of three things happens: you are injured (possibly only slightly), you are incapacitated (you croak in one turn if not given Healomancy), or you just croak. Height of the fall does seem to have some bearing on that, but it's essentially random."

Croakamancy

"She explained it this way. 'Croakamancy comes from the mind.' The more time and attention the caster spends uncroaking the unit, the closer it will be to its original strength and abilities when it was alive. And the more turns it lasts before degrading. So a good croakamancer can mass-animate every fallen unit in a hex, or city zone. But they'll be the weakest kind, and only last a few turns."

"From what I can tell, they're like the dwagons are with Stanley. They're loyal to the 'pliers, and therefore to Cruella herself. For all I know, she can see through their eyes and hear what they hear. But if not, they'll prob'ly just tell her anything interesting when they can."

"She had senses that she did not yet understand were unique to Croakamancers, and she used them on the fallen scout. His bones she could feel without touching him. She knew which ribs and teeth and vertebrae were broken."

"There would be some craft to this uncroaking, as not all of the original muscles and sinew could be counted on to perform their original functions. That was not a problem. That was what Croakamancy was for. Where a knee would no longer bend, where a bicep no longer existed to flex an arm, the Croakamancer made magical Motion to move the Matter."

"The body of the scout would have depopped at dawn, had they not moved it out of the hex where it was croaked. Claimed as a spoil for Goodminton, it would only decay a bit when they started their turn later in the morning."

"This is a warlord. If I uncroak him, he would benefit from all of my attention, and all of the juice I can spare. The more carefully I cast, the fewer mistakes I might make, and the more he will retain of the power he had in life. I believe I could make him last as long as ten or twelve turns, and retain about half his levels and leadership."

I could concentrate on uncroaking more than one unit, diluting the effects, but giving us more units. Or I could attempt to mass uncroak every unit in the hex.

You could do that?

Tommy... I-I don’t know. I feel it might be too much for me. A disaster. I could become overwhelmed. Maybe we wouldn’t get any units at all out of it. But if I succeeded, then the uncroaked units I create probably would not last more than a turn. Even the warlord."

"Blood flowed to her face, a mechanism she understood down to the tissues and sinus cavities within her head, for Croakamancy was a beautiful art. She felt her eyelids getting hot, ducts and vessels dilating. She was just a speck of Matter, herself, after all."

Carnymancy

"But we had this Carnymancer who really liked me. He saved me from croaking by rigging the incapacitation rules on me. They hauled me back to the capital in a wagon, and he cast over me every day for ten turns, just keeping me alive.

Until they got you a Healomancer?"

Pff, no. Queen Bea was mad enough at all the fuss over a Level 1 stabber. No, one day I just popped up off the bed, good as new. The Carnymancer said he'd 'made a trade' for me."

"I boosted his roll to a 4! I changed his odds, chose a way to describe the outcome of his choices. You see?” He picked up the dice and showed them to her. “The dice are not the guy, okay? In this case the guy is imaginary, and the dice are representing him. But this is real life,” he said, making a circle in the air with his index finger, “and you are not the dice. Okay? In real life, you are real, but the dice are imaginary. The dice that describe your choices. Mathamancy describes those, and Luckamancy affects those."

So you're saying my juice had a physical effect on the way the die rolled.

Yes.

Yes and no. It's not a direct effect, you see? The 4 is a Number. It had to come from somewhere.

The juice in your spell did not create the outcome, you are saying. Your spell did not create the 4. It...what?" What was the alternative? "Enabled it, somehow?

Honestly?That's the nice way to say it. Whatt'm saying is that maybe that die would have come up 4s three times anyway. So maybe my spell did nothing at all, at least so far. That's why I say it'll roll high 'for a little while.' I don't know."

"But here's what I do know. And maybe it's kind of a secret of my discipline but I think it's important, and I wanna tell you. Luckamancy doesn't create good outcomes, because that would undermine Mathamancy and Predictamancy. Mathamancy deals with real Numbers. If Luckamancy could just create Numbers out of juice, out of thin air, then every odds calculation would be off. Y'see? So what Luckamancy actually does is steal Numbers from the world."

"Where do you steal the Numbers from? Well, the world. If you rolled all the D4s in the world a bunch of times, that one included, you'd get an even mix of ones, twos, threes and fours. This little guy stole his roll from somewhere, and I think the world is lazy, you know? I don't think it goes very far to steal good outcomes when I boost one of our warlords, you know?"

"What, it steals Numbers from us?!Not all the time! I mean, it depends. The net effect is still good for us, because we're picking the right battles to win. But yeah it can be really hard on the rest of our side, sometimes. Especially unled and unboosted units. We...lose more of those kind of battles than we should."

Moneymancy

"It had been as ridiculous as everything else in Erfworld, rebuilding the city. The Overlord ordered it, the treasury was debited, and the city was instantly recreated. It was only Moneymancy. When it happened, Parson was standing in the ruins of the courtyard. There was a sound like a wind chime, with a whoosh of orchestral cymbals. Enormous, blinding magical sparkles filled the sky and the ground. And then the city was simply standing again, fully intact. There was no more rubble, not even a wisp of settling dust."

Axes

"Its numbers were being shaped and guided by the firmament, by what magic theorists called the Erf Axis. For when the price was paid, it was Erfworld which processed the transaction. The world would produce the unit that was called for...more or less. There was the matter of the Fate Axis as well, and this unit was turning out to be very special."

Erf

Fate

"Fate is inevitable, Warlord. But our path to it is not. We must first divine, and then enact our destinies. To live is to suffer. Our Fate is our only release. So if we fight against Fate, or fail to act in support of it when the way is clear, then we only worsen and prolong our misery. Our choices do matter. Wise choices ease the way, and foolish ones cause suffering."

Numbers

"To live is to stand on one side of an equation, which must equal zero in the end. There is a price, a cost in Numbers, to be paid for staying alive. Zero is a balance, an equilibrium. Zero is a flat country, neither far away nor near. You can travel there any time, at the cost of your life. And perhaps, if someone were to pay the price to the exact number, you could even return again. That Mathamancers often say such things, and nod to one another soberly, is thought to be why they tend to keep to their own company."

"This unit would be worth far more than the buyer had paid for. That was no violation of Numbers, though. It simply meant that this unit carried a balance due. And though it was an astronomically high figure, someone would pay. Zero always called, and someone would have to pay."